#1 2009-07-15 10:25:13

**_nrogers80_**

connect pro echoing

We have an auditorium that has a booth pc and a stage pc. We've are in the process of rebuidling the room and have run into an issue. In the past we've run the data and screen share from the stage PC and have run video/audio through the booth PC. The stage PC would send the presentation data to the connect pro server, and would send the program audio to the auditorium speakers.

In updating the room whenever we run program audio from the stage and have a connect meeting open it creates a feedback loop.

The installers say that they don't understand how it was hooked up before, but it worked. And now no one can figure out where the loop is occuring.

The stage PC now goes to a mixer that is sent to the booth pc as well as back out to the auditorium speakers.

Sorry for the vagueness, but if anyone has any experience with running connect pro through two computers, 1 for audio/video and 1 for content any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I've tried the echo cancellation options in connect pro, but all the configurations in the world don't seem to amount to a hill of beans.

Thanks.

**_dyun_**

Re: connect pro echoing

are the stage computer PC's speakers on?  if that PC is connected to the meeting and the speakers are on, then it will stream out the audio which would get picked up by the mics.

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

The stage PC audio out goes through to the mixer in the booth, so yes, they are on. When we mute the stage PC audio we get no echo naturally. The thing is, the room as it was previously setup worked without echoing and the PC audio playing.

We think it's an issue of the connect server feeding the computer audio back into the room, but figure it could be a connect issue.

It's been confusing to say the least, and no one seems to able to pinpoint where the issue is.

**_roysdenc_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Not sure if it would help, but on the talk button in the meeting room, you can select single speaker or multiple speakers.  Maybe adjusting this will give you the previous results.

-Chris

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Thanks Chris, we've given that a go and it's yielded the same results. This thing has been such a PITA.

**_roysdenc_**

Re: connect pro echoing

That sucks.  We had a similar echo issue that we were able to resolve (for the most part).  In our usecase, we have two presenters in a room presenting to a remote audience.  When one of them (the moderator) would unmute his mic to speak, we could actually hear him coming through the other mic (the main presenter), which caused an echo.  The reason was that the silence level in enhanced auido for the presenter was set to 0.  I know Adobe has messed with these settings, and it is often hard to get to where you can adjust them (which also suck).  When we were finally able to adjust them, we moved the silence level to 5, and haven't had a problem since.  It is very possible it is the room audio getting into that mic, thus the echo.

Just another idea I have.

-Chris

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Thanks, we haven't tried adjusting the silence levels, we'll give that a go and see if there's any success. Thanks for the suggestion.

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

We tried adjusting the silence levels but one of two things happened, either they were too high (around 100) and we got no green bounce levels, or they were too low and the echoing although slightly reduced continued.

Still not sure what the issue is. Our options might be limited to scrapping one of the computers and running connect pro through one computer. The problem with this is which computer to run from, the stage or booth. If we use the stage PC we need to run more cabling ($) and install an osprey card.

If we use the booth PC we'll need to run the presenters presentation from the booth and use visual cues to advanced the slides.

**_BCCAresearch_**

Re: connect pro echoing

This sounds like a physical setup of the auditorium. When the equipment was re-install was everything placed in the  same position or were there any other physical changes to the space? Do you get the echo when using the audio equipment when not in a meeting room? That would be the simplest way to determine if it is a hardware/setup issue or something cause by ACP. If the microphone on stage has been moved ahead of the auditorium speakers that may be causing the echo.

The fact that the installers do not understand how the room was setup prior to the rebuild is a bit worrying. You may be able to switch some of your audio hardware to solve this issue without incurring much cost. Are you using a directional or omindirectional microphone? What is the physical layout of the stage/auditorium? Where is the microphone in relation to the speaker?

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

We only get echo when in an open meeting room and the PC that is sharing content is sharing audio from a clip. No echo exists at any other time.

The installers before hand only commented on how anitquated the old system was, so I'm not even sure if they took a look at what WAS happening.

When they started troubleshooting this problem they couldn't understand how we made this configuration work in the past.

The layout is a 20 FT. stage that on the left has one podium with a mic. In front of that are two ceiling mics that hang down fairly low. There are other celing mics but they are generally turned down.

At the back of the auditorium is where the mic is mixed then sent to the booth PC where it is sent out to the servers.

The mic is a directional mic, but the ceiling's are omni-directional.

**_BCCAresearch_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Try muting all the microphones and bringing them up one at a time. You may have some luck in identifying whether it is your setup or a software issue. You may also have some luck using a lavaliere (a lapel mic) instead of the omni directional mics. It has always been my experience that using targeted microphones over area mics yield the best results but takes a bit more work to setup.

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Thanks again for your input. We'll try muting and going through them one by one. Also hadn't thought of giving a lav a try, we'll plug that in and see what the results are.

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

We've tried the lav and muting things one by one. I think we've isloated the problem to an IP echo/lag. Since we use a stage PC for only presentations, and a booth PC with an Opsrey card to run video/audio it seems that when we run a connect pro meeting the booth PC that is sharing only content sends the outgoing audio/video back through the servers and into the open stage PC meeting, where the audio is sent out through the auditorium speakers, creating an echo/reverb. When we mute the stage PC all is fine. Is there anyway I can mute audio ONLY in connect pro at the booth PC? Theoretically I think this should solve the problem, but I'm not sure there is a way to stop connect pro from playback at the stage PC without muting the whole system....

**_nrogers80_**

Re: connect pro echoing

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input and post that we found a solution to the echo reverb. The issue was that we were using two computers (one audio/video and one content) the content computer was on the stage, and when we loaded Connect Pro it would send out the content and receive the audio/video which would then be sent out to the auditorium speakers, after the microphone, thus creating echo and reverb.

I found a program called IndieVolume that allows the user to independently mute applications running under Windows XP. By muting the Adobe Connect Add-In and Internet Explorer, the stage PC does not rebroadcast the audio and therefore eliminates the echo/reverb while still allowing other computer audio programs to play as normal.

Thanks again for all the insight.